Apparatus for stacking closure fasteners



April 30, 1940. 1 F. REDMAN APPARATUS FOR ST-ACKING CLOSURE FASTENERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 8, 1938 wi l 3mm nkfibdman Patented Apr. 30, 1940 uuirs o srares arrests 1 APPARATUS FOR STACKING CLOSURE FASTENERS: ,1

Frank. vEedman, Washington, "Pa., assignor to Hazel-Atlas Glass Ccmpany,'Wheeling, W, Va., acorporation of West Virginia Application October- 8, 1938,"Se rial No. 234,057 r lliClaims. (01. 214-6) The; invention relates generally toanapparatus for automatically stacking: closure fasteners,

and more particularly it relates to anapparatus for stacking a Well known type of closure fastener, which compriseaan eccentric. andbail pivotally connected together.

If these closure fastenersv are not stacked in an orderly fashion, they become entangled among themselves, and very "considerable time is lost in untangling them whenthey are to be applied to the containers. ed. if the fasteners are stacked in. an orderly fashion at the" time they are formed; but the hand stacking of these articles requires heavy expenditures for labor. The present invention, as previously indicated, provides automatic means forstacking the fasteners in an orderly fashion; thereby efiecting' a very material reduc-' tion in cost. Various other-objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled'in'thc art, from the followingdetailed description, when taken in connection with" the accompanying drawings, in which;

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the appara;

tus. H

Figure 2 is a plan view with the upper parts removed. 7

Figure 3 is a vertical, longitudinal sectional view of the apparatus.

Referring tothe drawings in more detail, nu'' moral l indicatesan'end'less conveyer, which is preferably continuously travelling; The upper run of the conveyertravels over a'plate 2, and the closure fasteners are drawn-alongthe plate, by the conveyer, in uniform position and in properly spaced relation; Y i I The particular closure fasteners illustrated herein comprise an eccentric 3 andabail 4; The eccentric is formed from a piece of wire which is-bentto form eyes Eat the end of a loop por tion, and from the eyes the wire extends downwardly, asindicatecl by numeral 5, andthe downwardly extending portions have inturned'ends I. The bails 4 have inturned ends 8qwhich fit looselyin the eyes 50f the eccentrics; This'ferm of closure fastener is well known. The=bail passes over the glass or other closure on the container,

Of course this difiiculty is'avoidand the eccentric is attached to the container vby the inturned ends -'I thereof fitting'into re,-

cesses'; in the container. The arrangement is,

such thatwhen the eccentric is rotated downwardly to the locking position the ball is drawn dovvnwardly, and it thereby forces the closure down and locks it securely in sealing position.

Of course thebails and eccentrics are fabri:

cated separately, and are then united by snapping the inturned' ends 8-of the'bai1s1intowthe" gers 9Yon the conveyer l. are spaced the desired distance on -the conveyer, engage the loop portion of the .eccentric and These-'- fingers,- which carry the fasteners along the plate 2. Thedown-J wardly extending portions '6 and the inturned ends '5 of. the eccentric-maintain the' fasteners (5.9

properly positioned on the plate while they are being carried forward by the conveyer; as clearly shown in the drawings.

The forward portion of' theiplate 2 to turn "downwardly about a sprocket wheel ill. After a closure fastenerhas been carriediiorv i s bi'fur cated or slotted to p'ermit'tl'ie endless conveyer ward to a certainpointit is released from the convey'erfinger 9. byv reason ofthe downward travelof the conveyer about thesprocket wheel,

and after being so released the'fasteners are con tinuously pushed forward'by the following 1fas teners, as shownin Figures Zand 3.

The fasteners now passunder a: cover l carries a centrally arranged, longitudinallyextending hold-down plate 42. Also inv thespeci- 5,; salad in the specific embodiment illustrated, this cover 140.. in maintainingtheparts in properposition..,-. Ex

tending forwardly from thecover are "spaced 7 guide plates it, which overlie the fasteners-and prevent-any undue buck-ling of the fastenerpar'ts, whilev they are being stacked. Of c'ourse.the

The fasteners are being continuouslyc'arried along the guide plate 2, and they are-delivered from this plate to areceiving tabloid: As they are delivered oneby one to the receivingtable, they'are automatically stacked together inunia form relation, as .will now be describeda Numeral Hi refers toa magnetized finger which may be mounted in any desired manner. Inthe v 55 specific form illustrated this finger is attached to the hold-down plate l2. It will be noted that the finger extends forwardly and downwardly. This magnetized finger I8 is preferably rather narrow, and is centrally arranged,'as shown in Figure l. i

- Anydesired arrangement may be employed for. magnetizing the finger.

In the present embodiment a magnet I! is carried by a bracket H3 mounted on the cover Ii. A brass plate E9 insulates one end of the magnet from the cover and associated parts, and the other end of the magnet is in contact with the finger H5.

The manner in which the fasteners are stacked by this apparatus, will now be described.

As the leading fastener is pushed forward, the

central portion of the eccentric loop engages the magnetized finger l6, and this contact occurs before the eccentric passes entirely off the plate 2. Thus the eccentric loop does not drop down onto the receiving table, but is maintained in a substantially horizontal position until the leading central portion of the loop engages the mag.- netized finger.

The contact between the eccentric loop and the magnetized finger prevents the loop from falling, and in the continued forward movement of the fastener the loop travels downwardly along the finger. In Figure 3 one of the fasteners is shown in position after it has been delivered to the receiving table, and another fastener is shown in the position where it is about to be delivered to the table. The eccentric loop of the latter fastener is still held up by contact with the magnetic finger, and the depending portions 6 of the eccentric are still elevated above the receiving table by reason of the fact that the bail i has not yet been released from the plate 2 and associated parts. As the fastener continues its forward travel, the'eccentric loop will pass free of the end of the magnetic finger, and the loop will then drop down onto the receiving table, just tener. portions 6 of the eccentric will also be properly nested with respect to the similar parts of the preceding fastener. Preferably, however, there is a small portion of the bail still resting on the plate 2. The resulting slight further forward movement of the bail will cause the fasteners to be tightly nested together, just as the bail drops from the plate 2 onto the receiving table inproper relation with the preceding bail.

It only remains to explain why the eccentric is held elevated until it has about reached its nesting position with respect to the previously delivered fasteners. This is best explained by reference to Figure 5 which illustrates the formation of a stack of fasteners. If the eccentric loop were permitted to drop before it approached its nesting position, the loop would engage the bails of the fasteners already delivered in stacking relation, and such engagement would cause the entire stack to be moved forward, before the parts reached: the position of nesting relation, which of course would prevent the formation of a stack. The same thing could happen if the downwardly extending portions 6 dropped too early, so that they might engage'the bails before the fastener reached its stacking position.

After the number of fasteners has been delivered to form a stack of the desired length,they are simply lifted by hand, while remaining in stacked relation, and placed in a suitable receptacle for storing or shipping.

It will be apparent from the foregoing description that I have devised a verysimple apparatus by which closure fasteners are automatically stacked in nesting relation, ready for subsequent use without any danger of the fasteners becoming entangled among themselves, and that a very material cost reduction is accomplished thereby.

While the specific embodiment of the invention has been described in considerable detail, it will be understood that numerous changes and modi-, fications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and all such changes and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. An apparatus'of the character described, including a stacking table, means for delivering closure fasteners to a point at a higher level than the stacking table, said closure fasteners comprising two parts pivotally connected, and means for temporarily maintaining only the forward pivotally connected part elevated while the twopart fastener is passing from the higher delivery level to the lower stacking level, until the fastener closely approaches stacking position.

2. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners formed of a bail and an eccentric pivotally connected, which includes a stacking table, fastener delivery means arranged at a higher level than the stacking table, and means for temporarily maintaining only the eccentric elevated while the fastener is passing from the higher delivery level to the lower stacking lever, until the fastener closely approaches stacking position.

3. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners formed of two parts pivotally connected, which includes a stacking table, means for delivering the fastenersto the table, and means for tem porarily holding only one of the pivotally con nected fastener parts in elevated position while it is passing from the delivering means to the stacking table.

4. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners formed of a bail and an eccentric pivotally connected, which includes a plate, means for delivering the fasteners along said plate with the eccentrics in advance, and means for gradually lowering the eccentrics as they pass off said plate, while the bails are held in elevated position.

5. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners, including a stacking table, means for delivering the fasteners to the table, and a stationary and non-rotatable magnetized member making s1iding contact with the fasteners as they are delivered to the table.

6. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners, including a stacking table, means for delivering the fasteners at a higher level then the table,*and a downwardly and forwardly inclined magnetized member making sliding contact with the fasteners while they are passing from the higher level of the delivery means to the lower level of the stacking table.

'7. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners formed of two parts pivotally connected, which includes a stacking table, means for delivering the fasteners to the table, and a stationary magnetized member so positioned and constructed as to contact only one of the pivotally connected fastener parts as the fasteners are delivered to the table. p v

8. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners formed 'of a bail and an eccentric pivotally connected, which includes a stacking table, means for delivering the fasteners to the table, and a stationary magnetized member so positioned and constructed as to contact only the eccentrics as the fasteners are delivered to the table. 1

9. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners formed of a bail and an eccentric pivotally connected, which includes a stacking table, means for delivering the fasteners to the table withthe eccentrics in advance, and a relatively 1 narrow stationary magnetized member so positioned and constructed as to contact only the leading portion of the eccentrics as the fasteners are delivered to v the table.

10. An apparatus for stackingclosure fasteners formed of a bail and an eccentric pivotallyconforwardly inclined magnetized melnbercontacting the leading portion of the eccentrics as the fasteners pass" from the delivering means to the stacking table.

11. An apparatus for stacking closure fasteners formed of a bail and an eccentric pivotally connected, which includes a delivery plate, a conveyer associated with the plate and. continuously delivering the fasteners along the plate with the eccentrics in advance, a stacking table at a lower level than said delivery plate, and a stationary magnetized member in the path of the eccentrics as the fasteners pass from the plateto the stack ing table, said magnetized member being so positioned and constructed as to contact only the eccentrics.

FRANK REDMAN. 

